


A Dream in White

by Demeter



Category: Fruits Basket
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, F/M, Gen, Gen Fic, Gender Issues, akito is a little crazy, and lonely, somewhat AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-06
Updated: 2012-08-06
Packaged: 2017-11-11 14:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/479450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demeter/pseuds/Demeter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not quite as hard as she thought it would be. Akito and the passage of winter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dream in White

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All rights and privileges of Fruits Basket characters, objects and plots are property and trademarks of Takaya Natsuki and associated parties. The author claims no legal responsibility for problems associated with using this work.

  


* * *

 

The new year looms and the snow falls quiet and kind onto a world frozen into sharp droplets. A hand reaches out, over the wooden sill, and snowflakes drift lazy-like for a pale hand smudged wine with bruises. One puff of warm air, two, three, they drift up in hanging castles and clouds and the air is so silent Akito thinks she can hear the stars twinkle.

Her thick robes slide off one shoulder and the skin stings, pickles up in tiny little goose bumps that look like mountains dotting a landscape of ivory white. It doesn't hurt like it used to, so she leaves it off for once. She can't see so well, but Akito doesn't bother lighting any candles or turning on any lamps because her legs have lost all feeling and it would truly be tragic if she tried to stand and couldn't.

Akito breathes, in and out, as steady as a flickering fire fed no fuel.

She rests her head against her forearm and thinks about Kureno. She thinks about Shigure. She thinks about Akira. She thinks about Ren and Hatori and Ayame and Yuki and Haru and Kyo and even Tohru and Rin. Akito thinks because the air is too crisp for fantasies and her secluded rooms are too quiet to pretend. A sudden smile bends the corners of her mouth up in an awkward curtsy to an invisible partner. The look is awkward on her face, too young, too old, an attempt to be sunshine on a beach in the Artic.

Her heart palpitates; the slight rhythm has no rhythm. Akito smiles her involuntary smile.

There are no birds at this time of year. The air is colder than her feet and the edges of the pond are catching crystals and painting glass balls with a thick brush. It hurts, she thinks, just a bit. The pain comes not from dying, oh no. She wonders why dying would seem so inconsequential now. All her life, she'd wondered, she'd feared, it was one of Ren's greater weapons (though it will never never never beat the other one) and now that it finally comes upon her and her legs, Akito can only think.

A skeletal hand caresses her cheek and lifts her head to look out at the frozen world. She sees frosted dancers and the chilled dust stirs in her cheek.

"Kureno..."

Nothing answers.

"Hatori..."

Silence presses a kiss to her neck.

"Yuki..."

It might be too late, she thinks, something sliding out of her head. Her father blinks with the sidewalk light she never follows and fades like an aging photograph. Akira is always eye-level with her in her carefully-guarded memories, but this time he walks away, slow and filled with direction and there is no Ren. He turns and he seems to be smiling.

Her head sinks down again, gentle and filled with her own purpose.

"... Shigure..."

Something soft strokes her cheek, and the winter settles into her skin.

"Shigure..."

All it had taken was one camellia.

"Shigure..."

The New Year sinks in. A bell rings. She hears the pattering of footsteps, of melting voices. Hiro makes fun of Kagura, Ayame sings off-key with Ritsu, Yuki pulls Rin and Haru toward forgiveness and, and... and Akito closes her eyes, is too tired to think anymore, dreams about a future where she wears a white sundress and dances to the chimes of the turning seasons.

**fin**

**Author's Note:**

> Originally Posed in 2007.


End file.
